In his new book Why Politics Fails, award-winning Oxford professor Ben Ansell shows that it's not the politicians that are the problem, it's that our collective goals result in five political 'traps'.

Democracy: we all want a say in how we're governed, but it's impossible to have any true 'will of the people'.
Equality: we want to be treated equally, but equal rights and equal outcomes undermine each other.
Solidarity: we want a safety net when times are tough, but often we care about solidarity only when we need it ourselves.

In contrast to the ever-growing scholarship dedicated to sectarianism in the Middle East, relations between Sunni and Shi‘a Muslims in European contexts remain understudied. In Britain, the past decade has witnessed manifestations of Sunni-Shi‘a tensions which have also been matched by initiatives aimed at easing them. Such initiatives on the British Shi‘a scene are instructive to explore how Shi‘a Muslims conceive “Muslim unity” but also their own place within Islam’s diversity.

In recent decades Russia has played an increasingly active role in the Middle East as states within the region continue to diversify their relations with major external powers. Yet the role of specific Russian regions, especially those that share an 'Islamic identity' with the GCC has been overlooked.

Obstacles to peace between Israel and Palestine lack symmetry. Simple trade-offs (“You give me this piece of land and I’ll give you that other piece”. Or, “you refrain from this particular activity and I’ll refrain from that activity.”) will not clear these hurdles. Rather, the principal obstacles appear to be territorial on Israeli side, but attitudinal on the Palestinian.

This presentation presents a new history of the Lahore Museum in Pakistan, an institution whose collections of art and archaeological were dramatically divided between India and Pakistan in response to the partition of 1947. This history upholds the material archive, as an essential vantage point from which to understand the partition’s empirical, epistemological, and emotional ramifications for art and society in South Asia.

Dr. Guneeta Singh Bhalla is founder of The 1947 Partition Archive, an organization that documents oral histories from survivors of India and Pakistan's 1947 Partition, also known as the world's largest mass refugee crisis. After a 2008 visit to the oral testimony archives at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial she was inspired and began interviewing Partition witnesses in 2009. It was a deeply enriching experience and she wanted to make the art of oral history accessible to everyone.

The pre-eminent tabla virtuoso of our time and chief architect of the contemporary world music movement Zakir Hussain (2022 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy) will be live in Oxford for a live lecture and performance as part of the Kyoto Prize at Oxford.

Zakir Hussain has transcended the framework of traditional Indian music and opened up a new world of music by collaborating with musicians of various genres from around the world. With his superb technique, engaging performances, and rich creativity, he has made a tremendous impact on musicians and music worldwide.

Innovative population biologist Bryan T. Grenfell (2022 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Basic Sciences) whose methodology of analysis of pathogen evolution and epidemics has been instrumental in producing effective disease control measures gives a lecture for the Kyoto Prize at Oxford.

For this special online session as part of the Kyoto Prize at Oxford 2023 celebrations, the laureates join Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government to discuss collaboration across boundaries and the challenges of navigating the relationship between government and academia.

Pioneer of modern microelectronics Carver Mead (2022 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Advanced Technology) whose technological innovations form the foundations of modern very-large-scale integration chip design gives the Kyoto Prize at Oxford public lecture remotely.